Gillingham boss Steve Evans frustrated after Accrington draw

Posted Sunday, October 31, 2021 by PA

Gillingham boss Steve Evans lamented his side’s inability to convert their chances as they were held to a 0-0 draw at home to Accrington.

The Gills conceded two late goals at Bolton last week and again had to settle for a draw, although both sides ended the game unbeaten in their last three Sky Bet League One fixtures.

Evans said: “Today is the same as why we only scored two at Bolton last week – it’s about missed chances.

“You can play the tape recording from last week; the only difference is that we defended properly today when Accrington had the odd counter-attack.

“We’ve had total dominance and you can count seven, eight or even nine chances where we should score but we have not, so it’s hard to take.

“John [Coleman] will know that his goalkeeper and our inability to take our chances has got his side a point today.”

Evans revealed the extent of his side’s injury crisis at full-time, saying: “We’ve got a horrendous situation here. We’ve already got three kids on the bench.

“We’ve had no luck with injuries and more players are getting injured because we’re having to play them Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday.

“That’s taking its toll. It’s frustrating, especially as the lads know that if we’d have scored one today, we’d have got three or four, but we have to take the positives.”

Accrington manager John Coleman was satisfied with what he saw as a well-deserved point and clean sheet after a nightmare journey down to Kent.

He said: “On the balance of play you’d say 0-0 was a fair result. I’m delighted to get the clean sheet – it’s been a while since we had one of them and we’ve worked hard at being resilient. We wanted to be better on the ball, but we weren’t.

“I wasn’t happy with the way we played in the first half. Gillingham will always make chances and our goalkeeper kept us in it with a couple of great saves.

“We fluffed our lines a little bit in the first half. We didn’t pass it well, we didn’t retain possession as well as I’d have liked us to, and we didn’t probe or rotate the ball quickly.

“I thought we got stronger in the game as it went on. We were a lot better in the second half and we had a 15-minute spell where we should have scored.

“We had a nightmare trip yesterday – the coach broke down before we left, and then we caught traffic, so we only got here at 10.15pm. But I told the players that they shouldn’t use that as an excuse. If you’re using an excuse before you’ve started it’s a sign of weakness.”